Sunday, June 5, 2011

Kill the Death

Because You CanDeath is relative. You live each day hoping that you will never die. But in fear that you trip on the step and fall, the plane that deliver 99.9% of its passenger plunge against all the odds and take you down with it in your once in the blue moon flight, that the drunk behind the wheel hit crush you in front of a stupid crowd, the pill you pop for your headache goes bad and lay you for good or your dear wife slit the knife on your throat when you are dead asleep. You live in fear each moment.

But there are people who do not fear Death like we do. And if they do, they manage it better than we do. The names are relative again. There are many of them. But how can we learn from their apparent fearlessness and learn to live with the inevitability of death while at the same time, living life to its fullest. How do we prepare for Death so that when we know it is coming, we do not cower in its wake and instead face it with the glee of knowing that it is only too natural.

There are atleast two kind of people who can do that. One is the spiritually enlightened who knowing the transcendental nature of life prepare for death each moment of their life so that when death come, they make a scripted exit. Then there is the fearless warrior type. They live by the cult of doing their absolute best. After that, they are prepared to accept anything. There are the pretenders too. Those who live their life in delusion of substance and ego. But when Death dost meet them, they are found just as wanting as any of us, or worse, they die unaware what struck them. The rest of the humanity fall in our category, those who know of Death’s approach only too well, but those who keep running away from it as if we could.

So what can we really do when we know there is only one end we can all really come to. The answer it would seem is in the knowledge that Death is inevitable and every moment that we live, we have to keep on preparing. While we can’t put off Death indefinitely, we can do whatever we need to do now, at this very moment and keep doing it forever so that Death cannot reproach and hurt us. At the very least, we can take the sting out of it. We must also know that we must ultimately give way so that others can take our place. In doing so, there is a grace and when we our times come, we pass away in dignity. We cannot keep Death away, but we might very well neutralize it. We can then greet Death and say, Nice to meet you finally, Mr Death!